Author
Topic: j.bagge0023's Q&A (Read 3000 times)

j.bagge0023

When he called Friday evening, it was from a phone the drill sergeant let him use. He just explained to me briefly that they were making him change his MOS and asked me to fax down a paper saying that he no longer owes anything on his student loans. It was probably a 3 minute conversation. I'm hoping he will get a chance to call again tonight and we can talk some more about this. Since his basic training has started, he's been able to call on Sundays for around 10/15 minutes. I'm just worried. He seemed to be pretty upset about the whole situation.

Just cherish those calls and write him often. If he had joined the Marine Corps, I got 1 five minute call at like my 2 month mark and that was it. Luckily I wasn't married so it was just to my parents, and then I saw them a month later at my graduation, so just appreciate that you do get to talk to him once a week.

Like Keith said, he'll find something, and it will be something he likes, I'm sure. The military is what you make of up, and if he keeps this attitude he has now, and your support, you both will love it.

I never went many places due to being in the USMC and we only had 4 main bases to choose from. Obviously Hawaii is beautiful, but everyone wants it. I loved my time in Virginia though, and I'm sure Fort Benning is nice since that is the main Army Base and is HUGE. But it is what you make of it. Just enjoy wherever you get sent b/c that is a paid vacation. My brother in law is in Germany now. Pretty nice since my wife looked at visiting her sister and it would be around $3,000 for us all to fly out, not to mention lodging all. So get out and see the sites wherever you are, it will have something new to do. We always found stuff to do from Okinawa, Japan to Jacksonville, N.C. We did a bunch of different things we never would have done. Oh, and Busch Gardens in Southern Virginia was always doing military appreciation days and was really great. We still talk about going back there because we had such a good time.

Bases differ by job, so without knowing what job he may get it is hard to say what bases are nice. In my opinion the better Army bases that i have been to are Fort Bragg, Fort Hood... Fort Benning, despite being a big and old base, i did not care much for. Everything is old, but now that they are moving Armor Basic there and moving the Armor (Tank Headquarters there) it will be much better. Ones that i hear you want to stay away from are Fort Irwin, CA (in the middle of the desert, not much around it), Fort Polk, LA, Fort Knox, KY, Fort Riley Kansas.But like i said, depending on his job you could go all over. For example, i am Armor (Tanks) and i only have about 10 US bases in the States that i can go to. Germany, Hawaii, and Alaska are nice. Along with looking for nice bases, you want to try and get places that offer stuff that you like to do. Army housing is improving, and for the most part, most new housing on bases goes to the Junior Enlisted. And you SAVE money if you live on post, as they pay your utilities and trash. I went from paying nothing out of pocket while living on post, to paying about $100 out of pocket (more than my BAH) when we moved on post, and we do not use that much water or power. He is going to get a "dream sheet" to try and pick some places for you to go. Remember though, it is a "Dream Sheet" . They look at the dream sheets, and see what the Army needs to fill, and base assignments off of that.

Here is a link to "Military One Source". There is a ton of information on there that will be able to help out also, anything from military bases, housing, benefits, etc.